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Kathopanisad

Chapter 2 Valli 1 Mantra 4

Mantra

svapnānta̍ṁ jāga̍ritā̱nta̱ṁ co̱bhau ye̍nānu̱paśya̍ti |
mahānta̍ṁ vibhu̍m ātmā̱na̱m ma̱tvā dhī̍ro na̱ śoca̍ti ||

yena = That by which; anupaśyati = one perceives; svapnāntaṁ = the content of dreams; jāgaritāntaṁ = the content of the waking state; ca-ubhau = both of them; matvā = having  realized; mahāntaṁ = the great; vibhum = all-pervading; ātmānam = Self; dhīraḥ = the wise person; na śocati  = does not grieve.

The wise, when he knows that, by which he perceives all objects in dream or in ‘waking, is the great omnipresent Atma, grieves no more.

by Swami Chinmayananda:

Here Lord Death is slightly elaborating upon the greatest significance and the practical application in life of the Knowledge of Atman in us. In these days of skepticism and lustful madness for profits and material hoardings the educated class of Hindus all over the country ask sarcastically of what use is this wonderful Knowledge of Atman which the Vedanta preaches: Can it set us on our progress Can it cure the poverty in the world or bring about universal peace and joy.

Though one is tempted to curse this generation for its unintelligent approach to religion we must at once admit that there was, probably, never in the history of the world a generation born so sensitive as ours, and so sincerely seeking to establish communal peace and universal brotherhood, as ourselves.

Here, in the stanza, we have a sufficiently broad hint as to the mental state, the physical condition and the intellectual attitude of a seeker who has come to grasp this true great Knowledge and fix his own identity with the Real Factor, Pure Consciousness, that lies in him,

We already found in the previous Mantra that the world of the waking state, experienced through our five senses of knowledge, is made possible, only because of the Vital Intelligence, the Life Force, that presides in our body.

If life were not in any particular body, however great and noble that Mahatma might have been, however intelligent the Scientist, however emotional the poet, however great a genius the painter, none of them would any more function, when once the life has ceased to preside over the body! Thus, we have already found out that the intelligent entity, the Awan, is the illuminator of our awareness of the waking-state-world during the periods of our wakeful existence.

There could be none who had not yet experienced what a dream is. Now, supposing, you take up a book in hand; how do you read it ¢ Is not the presence of some light necessary for the illumination of the letters and words in the book, so that you may read: Supposing it were night, you might read in the moonlight; in the dark fortnight by starlight; in a cloudy starless pitch darkness you may bring the light of fire to light up the letters. In short, without some sort of light we cannot see objects. Yet; we will “see” our daily dreams. The dream world certainly exists only within ourselves; and since we “see” them, and they are objects, we surely must needs have some sort of a light to illumine for us the inner objects in jour mental region. Lord Death explains that the dream-world is also illumined for us by the Light of the same Divine Intelligence that presides in us as our Real Nature,

One and the same Consciousness illumines for us not only the world of our waking state but it also lights up for us the experiences of our dream-state.

The goal of life, the highest achievement of man, is to get himself completely detached from his false identifications with his body, mind and intellect, and come to rediscover himself to be nothing other than that Divine Spark, which is the director and controller of all the activities, manifested in Its outer envelopments!

Mahantham Vibhum (Great, Omnipresent) – In the final experience of God-consciousness the perfected one establishes his identity with his soul and thereby at once realizes his own nature as great and omnipresent; for, we have already found that the individual Self is the Supreme Self.

Having realized this Factor, this Truth, the realized saint grieves no more (Na Sochati). Sense of limitation is the mother of desires in the human heart, desires raise the storm clouds of whistling thoughts to shriek through a noisy bosom, and drive the sense organs to gallop out into the muddy mesh work of sense objects. In the hustle and tussle to achieve a satisfaction in each of our desires, we strive and struggle and, in the end, find ourselves in a vale of tears. Even when the desires are fulfilled, we, alas | discover that the joy of success we expected to enjoy is not there. When the desires are not fulfilled, in tearful disappointments, men grieve and sigh, make their life a burning avenue of wretchedness. Thus, desires ultimately give us nothing but sorrow whether they are fulfilled or not.

Desire, we found, can rise only when there is a sense of imperfection in us. Soon after a full dinner, at least for some time, even the worst of gluttons will not desire for something to eat; for the time being there is no lack of food within him. Soon after a couple of hours he may desire for some light tiffin! Here he has started feeling a sense of incompleteness, hence the desire.

When a perfect human being who has ended all his mis understandings about himself and has come to the Knowledge that he is the Supreme Awareness in himself, he, in his Absolute sense of Perfection, shall desire no more for anything that the world of the sense objects can give. Such a perfected one is a God-man upon earth. This is the Goal pointed out by the greatest of all religions known to man, Hinduism. The Religion of Vedanta calls upon man to rediscover himself to be nothing short of God Himself. And when a mortal has fully realized and come to live continuously the God-consciousness, him, certainly, no sorrows can approach.

If there be but a generation of such Supermen, will it not most satisfactorily solve all our problems: political, economic, cultural and religious: In fact even when a man has just begun to live the Life of the Spirit, all the above-mentioned problems of life will recede as though at the waving of magic wand’ Is there anything, then, more practical than the Religion of Vedanta?

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Index…

Kathopanisad

Chapter 2 Valli 1 Mantra 3

Lecture

Mantra

yena̍ rū̱paṁ ra̍saṁ ga̱ndha̱ṁ śa̱bdān spa̍rśāṁś ca̱ maithu̍nān
ete̍nai̱va vi̍jānā̱ti̱ ki̱m atra̍ pari̱śiṣya̍te
e̱tad vai tat !

yena = that by which; vijānāti = know clearly; rūpaṁ = colour; rasaṁ = taste; gandhaṁ = smell; śabdām = sound; sparśāṁ = touch; ca = and; maithunān = pleasure derived from sex; etena eva = through this [Self] only; kim = what; atra = in this world; pariśiṣyate = remains; etat vai tat = this is indeed that.

That Atman by which man cognizes form, taste, smell, sounds and the sexual joys. what is there unknowable to that Aman in this world? This is verily that (Atman thou hast wanted to know).

by Swami Chinmayananda:

This Mantra must be quite clear to those of you who would read and ponder over the Kenopanishad. In fact this Mantra is a summary of the entire line of arguments raised in Kenopanishad and the conclusions reached therein.

We found in Kenopanishad that the instrument eye, in itself, is not competent to cognize the external objects. If the eyes were to see of their own accord, then if [ were to pluck out my eyes and place them on the table they should be able to continue seeing things by themselves; this we know is absurd. Again, a dead man whose eye balls are intact, even though he is staring on with open eyes, we, from our practical knowledge of life, know for certain that the open eyes of the dead see nothing. From the above it is amply clear that the human eye is only an instrument to see and that it is to be used by a Seer within.

For a close analogy we shall take the case of a telescope in use. A telescope by itself can observe no movement of the planets! Iris the observer behind the eye-piece of the telescope who watches the heavens through the instrument. Similarly, the human organs-of-knowledge are only instruments through which smell, sound, taste, form and touch impulses can be received by an intelligent entity that rules the within and makes use of these five instruments.

That power within each one of us, that is the seer behind our eyes, the listener behind our ears, the smeller behind the nose, the taster in the tongue, and the feeler in the skin, is the Soul of man, the Atman, the Self.

This conclusion, already arrived at in Kenopanishad, is now inimitably summarized in this Mantra by Lord Death, when he says that is Atman by which man cognizes form, taste, smell, sounds and sexual joy, Maithunan (sense enjoyments) – The use of the word in its plural must necessarily give us the hint that it is not the sexual pleasure alone that is meant but it covers up all enjoyments that we receive from the external world through our instruments of sense-knowledge.

Atman being thus the vital intelligence that presides over all the sense instruments, since all our knowledge regarding the world of objects is only through the reports of these five great agents, it is quite appropriate to state that there is nothing un-knowable for that Atman in this world. Again, we shall find, later on in the same Upanishad that the Supreme Reality is by nature Knowledge Absolute.

We may here conveniently remember that the eager seeker in Nachiketa reached the doors of his preceptor, Lord Death, raising a question or doubt as to “what is that which is beyond Dharma and Adharma, beyond the cause and effect and beyond the past and the future”. That question is being now directly answered. The Life Centre in us that controls and directs all our physical, mental and intellectual activities is the Divine Spark of Truth, the Self. Tt being Eternal and Infinite in Its nature, It must necessarily be beyond the comprehension of language to definite It as such. So then, conforming Himself to the method-of-the Upanishads, Lord Death through the activities of the dead inert matter envelopments around us is pointing out to a vital and dynamic Presence of Divinity which is in us. There-after He explains to Nachiketa that “this is verily that”.

In our ordinary life we indicate objects with the pronouns “this” and “that”, when one is nearer to us than the other; the nearer one is always indicated by the pronoun “this”. When we say “that” chair and “this” pen, it clearly shows that the chair is far away and the pen is nearer to us. Again, the pen becomes farther removed from us when it is compared with our own shirt; Thus, we say “that” pen and “this” shirt, similarly, we may use expressions as “that” body and “this” mind; “that” mind and “this” intellect, etc., within ourselves, when we compare our own body with our own mind, and our own mind with our own intellect. Naturally, it becomes evident that the Self, which is the core of ourselves being the most intimate part in us, is righty indicated by the term “is”.

Kimatra-parisisyate – “What else remains here ?” Comparing the various available renderings of this line and the interpretations upon it, we must conclude that Sankara’s is the best and the most appropriate. “What, is that there in this world, remains unknowable by the Self,” meaning, nothing remains as unknown, where the pure knowledge is realized in Gyan there are no objects to be known.

Here the Upanishad says, “this is that”: meaning the individual-Self is the Supreme Self. Besides this Vedantic interpretation of the oneness of the individual-Self and the Total Self, we may here, accepting the dramatic background of the Upanishad, explain the passage as “that is the Atman thou hast wanted to know ” about which even Gods are puzzled.

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